Conway man faces 4th OUI charge

CONWAY — A Conway man pleaded not guilty Monday to drunken driving for the fourth time, after state police arrested him Sunday night on South Shirkshire Road.

Kurt Russell Finch, 36, of 2701 Shelburne Falls Road, was arraigned in Greenfield District Court to charges of driving under the influence of alcohol, fourth offence; operating with a license suspended due to OUI; possession of an open container of alcohol in a vehicle; negligent operation; marked lanes violation and driving with an expired inspection sticker.

State Police Trooper Michael McNally reported he responded to a single-vehicle accident on South Shirkshire Road around 5:50 p.m. and arrived to find a man walking away from a green Ford F-150 pickup left in the road.

The man, later identified as Finch, was stumbling and failed several sobriety tests before registering a .214 blood alcohol level on a breath test, McNally wrote in the arrest report. A reading of .08 carries a presumption of guilt.

Finch had no passengers and said he had struck a bridge but was unhurt, according to police.

Inventorying the truck after Finch’s arrest, McNally reported finding an open can of beer and an open nip bottle of peach-flavored rum.

McNally wrote he subsequently found Finch’s license had been revoked for drunken driving in January, effective for two years,

Finch was convicted of OUI in December 2012 and January 2013 in Eastern Hampshire District Court and in Ohio in 2002, according to the report.

Judge William Mazanec ordered Finch held without bail in the Franklin County House of Corrections pending his next court date.